Leaks Found at Two More Illinois Nuclear Plants
By Hal DardickTribune staff reporter
Published February 15, 2006, 9:42 PM CST
Radioactive tritium leaks have been found at two more nuclear power plant sites, Exelon Nuclear announced Wednesday, only weeks after the company disclosed a series of spills at a Will County plant.
The leaks were discovered in recent weeks at Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County and Byron Nuclear Generating Station, about 25 miles southwest of Rockford.
So far, no tritium has been detected in groundwater off Exelon property near those plants, and the leaks "pose no health or safety threat," Exelon stated in its announcement.
But Rick Cobb, a hydrogeologist who is deputy manager of the Division of Water Supplies for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, said it is too early in his agency's investigation to confirm that assessment.
The disclosures come weeks after Exelon publicly revealed water containing tritium spilled four times between 1996 and 2003 from vacuum breakers on an underground pipe at Braidwood Generating Station in far southwest Will County.
Exelon detected groundwater tritium above levels permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at two spots outside the plant.
Though tritium levels found in drinking wells near the Braidwood plant don't exceed those limits, tritium in one well was well above the normal "background" level. That's a violation of state "non-degradation standards," Cobb said.
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